USS Melbourne
The USS Melbourne (NCC-62043) was a Federation starship in service during the mid-24th century. The Melbourne was one of three ships docked at Starbase 74 during the 's upgrade there in 2364. When the Enterprise was hijacked by a group of Bynars, the Melbourne was unable to pursue due to her repair status. The station's CO, Orfil Quinteros, initiated a rush repair schedule to get the vessel ready for pursuit, but the situation was resolved before the Melbourne was flight-ready. ( ) In late 2366, William Riker was offered the command of the Melbourne. While Jean-Luc Picard described her as "a fine ship," Riker decided not to pursue the commission at that time, choosing instead to remain aboard the Enterprise-D. ( ) Soon after, the Melbourne formed part of the forty-strong Federation task force that stood against an invading Borg cube at the Battle of Wolf 359, and was destroyed in the battle. Lieutenant Gregory Bergan was among the Melbourne's crew at that time. ( ; ) When the Enterprise-D arrived in the system a few hours later, the wreck of the Melbourne was one of the vessels recognized by Commander Shelby. ( ) Background This starship may have been named after the city of , Australia (which in turn was named after ). Which class of the ship the Melbourne belongs to has remained contentious. Originally, the Melbourne appeared amidst the Wolf 359 debris field in as a prototype model built by Ed Miarecki. Scenes featuring the wreckage were reused and adapted to serve as Surplus Depot Z15 in . A second Nebula-class model built by Miarecki, with the name and registry of the Melbourne, was seen in and . The same model was seen on display in Sisko's office aboard Deep Space 9 on several occasions, most prominently in and . When the battle scene was revisited several years later for , the Melbourne was slated to be destroyed on camera. There was also a further verbal reference of the Melbourne in the script of "Emissary" that was cut from the final airing of the episode. The producers chose the more detailed Excelsior-class model to portray the Melbourne for that scene, and labeled it with the registry number used previously on the Nebula model. Its appearance in that episode was the only instance of the registry and name being clearly visible on-screen. As a result, the Star Trek Encyclopedia assumes the Melbourne was only ever an Excelsior-class ship. Interestingly, the Nebula model also made an appearance in "Emissary", as part of the general battle debris. This is not the first time that two vessels with the same name and registry have been seen on screen, and it is unclear whether both vessels were serving at the same time with some speculative explanation as to their registries and/or status prior to Wolf 359. The previous time something similar was seen was the two grain ships seen in carry an identical registry number of NCC-G1465 showing that the situation where two vessels with the same name and registry are active at the same time is highly unusual, but not without precedent. The registry of NCC-62043 is the highest seen to date on an Excelsior-class starship. Footage of the destruction of the Excelsior-class Melbourne was reused in the "flashback" memory sequence in . Image:Ussmelbourne.jpg|The Excelsior-class Melbourne in "Emissary" Image:Ussmelbournewreakagebobw.jpg|The Nebula-class Melbourne in "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II" Image:Ussmelbournewreakageemissary.jpg|The Nebula-class Melbourne in "Emissary" Image:USS Melbourne-dedication model.jpg|The Nebula-class Melbourne dedication model in "Future Imperfect" Melbourne, USS